Lone parents will start getting the help they need to look for work earlier rather than stay on benefits, Work and Pensions Minister Maria Miller said recently.

Lone parents on Income Support whose child is aged five or over are being informed by letter recently that, starting from May 2012, if they are able to work they will need to move from Income Support to Jobseeker’s Allowance where they will receive extra help to return to the workplace. Previously this change has been when their child was aged seven.

There are 1.8m children living in households where no one works and around 600,000 lone parents relying on Income Support. The Government dedicates well over £6 billion per year supporting lone parent families but a child of an out-of-work lone parent is almost three times more likely to be in poverty than those where the lone parent works part-time and five times more likely than those working full-time.